The present application relates generally to footwear, and more particularly, to a stabilizing sole for footwear that uniformly supports a wearer's feet to help absorb the stress and shock on a person's body generated during repeated impact between their feet and the ground during impact movements such as walking, jogging and running.
Running is particularly hard on a person's feet and body. For example, the impact of each foot striking the ground during running is the equivalent of three to five times of your body weight or more. Insufficient cushioning and support and/or misalignment of a person's feet within their shoes reduces the absorption of this impact, thereby transferring more of the shock and stress to the user's body, and unnecessarily stressing the knees, hips and lower back. As a person runs, the shock and stress is repeated at every impact or foot strike with the ground, which can cause stress injuries, pain and excess wear on the person's joints.
When the feet and ankles are properly supported and aligned, a person's body is able to absorb large impact forces. Also, overall stability and biomechanical efficiency improves to help the feet absorb and reduce impact forces, while forming an efficient lever to channel power correctly during propulsion. Footwear manufacturers utilize these concepts when developing and improving footwear alignment and support structures for shoes.
There are many different types of support structures for footwear to help absorb the shock and stresses on a user's feet. These structures typically revolve around the midsoles and outsoles but may also include the uppers. Some of the structures involve changing the thicknesses of the midsole and/or outsole to provide more cushioning and support to different parts of a user's foot. For example, the combined thickness of the midsole and outsole may be greater at a certain portion of a user's foot, such as the heel, to provide more support for the heel during walking, jogging or running. Alternatively, the combined thickness of the midsole and outsole may be greater at the medial or lateral sides of a shoe to help compensate for the roll of a person's foot during running such as over pronation or under pronation, i.e., supination.
Other support structures utilize different materials to form the midsole and outsole, where the materials have different hardness levels. For example, the hardness of the material used to form the midsole may be greater than the hardness of the outsole such that the outsole absorbs most of the impact and the harder midsole provides support for the feet. Similarly, the hardness of the materials may be different at different portions of the foot to cushion and support the different portions of the foot. Some shoes include a harder material on the inner or medial side of a shoe to form a medial post that helps reduce the rolling of a person's foot to the medial side.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide footwear that uniformly supports and aligns a person's feet during walking, jogging and running to help reduce the stresses on a person's feet and body.